April 27, 2024

Athens News

News in English from Greece

The European Parliament voted in plenary session on Wednesday to ban internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in favor of electric vehicles.

MEPs expressed their opinion on eight proposals for a large legislative package presented by the European Commission in July 2021 to reduce CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030.

After this vote, battery-powered electric vehicles will be the only ones that meet the European zero emission target by 2035, and in fact become the only ones on the market. From 2020, Europe set an average CO2 emissions ceiling for automakers of 95 grams per kilometer, which was to be reduced by 37.5% by 2030.

Currently EU is aiming for emission reductions that could reach 50% in 2030 and then 100% in 2035. In opposition to this proposal, the European People’s Party proposed to reduce car emissions by 90% by 2035. This will allow new hybrid vehicles to be marketed, taking into account the carbon emitted by the industry in the production of the vehicle.

“This is incompatible with the Paris Agreement and jeopardizes the achievement of the European goal of carbon neutrality by 2050,” said Pascal Canfin, chairman of the parliamentary committee on the environment, as he awaited the vote. He himself denounced the “radicalization against the Green Pact”, which, in his words, was the victim of an “intensive lobby” of industrialists.

After the results, Mr. Kanfin welcomed them and spoke of a “great victory” and “a historic decision that leads us to a new era of climate neutrality.” Now the decision will have to consider the heads of state and government.

About hybrid cars

The new rules will further favor electric vehicles and exclude hybrids and plug-in hybrids that combine gasoline engines and batteries. This is enough to worry the automotive industry, which employs 14.6 million people in the EU and is still heavily dependent on this “transitional technology”.





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